 Text Book :

 Computer Networks By Andrew S Tanenbaum (5th Edition)

 Reference Books :
1. Computer Networking – Top Down Approach By Ross &
Kurose
2. Data and Communication Networks By Behrouz
Forouzan
3. Data and Communication Networks By William Stallings
 it is a “collection of autonomous computers
interconnected by a single technology”
 A computer is said to be autonomous if it is
independent and no other computer can
control it
 Two computers are said to be interconnected
if they are able to exchange information
 So, ideally we can say that our Computer
Network is a type of Communication System
 Transmission System Utilization
 Interfacing
 Signal Generation
 Synchronization
 Exchange Management
 Error Detection & Correction
 Flow Control
 Addressing
 Routing
 Recovery
 Message Formatting
 Security
 Network Management
 Design and Organization of these Networks
which are a combination of Hardware and
Software
 Network Hardware - The hardware consists of
the physical equipment that carries signals
from one point of the network to another.
 Network Software - The software consists of
instruction sets that make possible the
services that we expect from a network.
 Various Devices – Hubs, Repeater, Switches,
Router, Gateway etc.
 Two technical issues
◦ Transmission technology
 Broadcast
 Point-to-Point
◦ Scale or size of network
 PAN
 LAN
 MAN
 WAN
 Internet
Single channel is shared by all devices
At any given time only one device is allowed to
transmit
Access Control mechanism plays an important role
Addressing - all devices need to be uniquely
addressed
Supports transmission to a single machine
(Unicasting)
Supports transmission to a group of machines
(Multicasting)
Supports transmission to all the machines
(Broadcasting)
A device is connected to another device using a
dedicated link (no shared single channel)
Going from one device to another may require
visiting intermediate nodes if no direct link exists
Multiple paths may exist between any source-
destination pair
Routing Algorithms play an important role
 Networks differ in terms of the geographical
distance over which they are spread ( ie.
Maximum interprocessor distance permitted)
 Networks that are geographically localized
tend to use Broadcasting while networks that
are geographically spread wide apart tend to
use point-to-point transmission technology
 Among the networks LAN’s differ in terms of
their size, transmission technology used and
topology